Fig. 12.1.10 Different departments look at the same data differently.

The reason the data warehouse can serve as a foundation of data for different
organizations is that the data in the data warehouse are granular and integrated. You can
think of the data in the data warehouse as grains of sand. Sand can be shaped into many
different final goods—silicon chips, wine glasses, automobile headlights, body parts, and
so forth. And by the same token, marketing can look at data in the data warehouse one
way, finance can look at data in the data warehouse another way, and sales can look at
data in the data warehouse yet another way. And yet, all of the organizations are looking
at the same data, and there is reconcilability of data.

The ability to serve different communities is one of the most important characteristics of
the data warehouse.

Data Marts

Chapter 12.1: Operational Analytics